Biographical and genealogical history of the city of Newark and Essex County, New Jersey, V. 1, Part 8

Author: Ricord, Frederick W. (Frederick William), 1819-1897; Ricord, Sophia B
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: New York : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 826

USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > Biographical and genealogical history of the city of Newark and Essex County, New Jersey, V. 1 > Part 8

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President John H. Harris, D. D., LL. D., wrote to Dr. J. A. Coles :

"Dear Sir: The bust of Julius Caesar, with pedestal, arrived safely, and has been put in place. The work evokes much ad- miration, and the feeling of gratitude to the generous givers is universal.

"Please accept our hearty thanks for your kind remembrance and generous gift.

"Respectfully, "JOHN H. HARRIS."

A letter from Bishop John H. Vincent, chancellor of the Chautauqua University, to Dr. J. A. Coles, reads as follows :

"Chautauqua, N. Y., July 14, 1897. "My Dear Doctor: I send to the New York Tribune this evening a copy of the enclosed telegram. The bust and its mar- ble pedestal are beautiful, and Chautauqua does really appreciate your great kindness.

"Faithfully yours, "JOHN H. VINCENT."

"In connection with a great amphithea- tre concert at Chautauqua, under the di- rection of Dr. Palmer, a life-size bronze bust of Beethoven, presented by Dr. J. Ackerman Coles, of Scotch Plains, New Jersey, was unveiled. Just before the un- veiling, President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University, delivered a brief address on music. As the veil was lifted, the amphi-

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theatre gave the splendid Chautauqua sa- lute, in honor of Beethoven, and in recog- nition of Dr. J. Ackerman Coles and his sister. Immediately following this Mr. Wm. H. Sherwood gave a piano solo,-the Sonata Appassionata, by Beethoven. The performance was brilliant. The Chautau- qua salute was also given to Professor Sherwood."

"To the Hall of Marble Statuary, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," the New York Evangelist says, "Dr. J. Ackerman Coles, of Newark, who has ad- ded so largely of late to the art treasures of his own city, has made a couple of valu- able gifts."

One gift is the famous statue, known as "The Promised Land," executed in Car- arra marble, by the celebrated American artist, Franklin Simmons, at Rome, Italy, in 1874. A beautiful ideal life-size female figure, gracefully robed, is designed to represent the earnest longing of the spirit for "The Promised Land," "The Better Country," "The Celestial City of Zion." Upon the plinth of the statue, which rests upon an elegantly paneled octagonal ped- estal of dark Spanish marble, are inscribed four lines of the mediaval Latin hymn, "Urbs Coelestis Sion," by St. Bernard, of Cluny, with its translation, by the late Dr. Abraham Coles, the hymn and the transla- tion being well known to scholars through- out the literary world. Daniel Hunting- ton, the second vice-president of the mu- seum, and chairman of the committee on sculpture, in recommending its acceptance by the board of trustees, wrote :

"I am greatly pleased with the statue. It has a refined and spiritual character, as well as artistic grace and beauty."

The other gift from Dr. Coles, as execu-

tor of the estate of his father, the late Dr. Abraham Coles, is a Cararra marble copy, by P. Barzanti, of Florence, Italy, of the antique statue, "Venus de Medici." The original, it will be remembered, was found in the Villa of Hadrian, at Tivoli, in the seventeenth century, and was taken to Rome, and deposited in the Medici Palace, whence it took its name. About the year 1680 it was carried, by order of Cosmo III., to Florence. In 1796 Napoleon Bona- parte sent it, with other works of art, to. France, and had it placed in the Louvre, at. Paris. . Here it remained until 1815, when it was returned to Italy, and is now the chief treasure in the tribune of the Uffizi gallery at Florence. It is of Parian mar- ble, and was executed by Cleomenes, the Athenian, the son of Apollodorus, who flourished between 200 and 150, B. C. From its exquisite proportions and perfec- tion of contour, it has become the most. celebrated standard of female form extant.

The copy, with its marble pedestal, given by Dr. Coles, is considered to be equal in every respect to the one in the gallery of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth, England. Soon after its proffer to the mu- seum, General Louis P. Di Cesnola, secre- tary and director, wrote to Dr. Coles as fol- lows :

"I have the honor to inform you that, upon the recommendation of the commit- tee on sculpture, the trustees of the Metro- politan Museum of Art have accepted your gift, and have instructed their executive committee to convey to you an expression of their thanks for your generosity. In do- ing so, I may be permitted to add that these thanks will be constantly hereafter re- peated by the people, to whose enjoyment and instruction the Museum of Art is de- voted, and to which your gift is a valuable

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contribution. With high regards, I re- Coles homestead building, No. 222 Market main,

"Very sincerely yours, ".L. P. DI CESNOLA, "Secretary."

Deerhurst, since their father's death, has continued to be occupied by Dr. Coles and his sister. "Back from the house a short distance," says the Boston Transcript, "is the deer park; farther on is the labyrinth, a fac-simile of the Maze, at Hampton Court, near London, England. The mansion it- self is substantial, elegant and beautiful, and replete with articles rich and rare, gathered in journeyings through foreign lands. The library is an ideal room. It is open to the roof, the rafters coming down in graceful sweeps, with here and there odd little windows, deeper ones, reaching to the floor and opening upon balconies. On every side are books,-in massive cases, filling deep recesses; on shelves substanti- ally built around corners and supported by ornamental columns, and on daintier shelves, arranged above one's head. A vast and varied collection, in all languages, carefully and worthily bound." One very rare volume is remarkable as being the first book printed containing Arabic types, and is entitled, "Psalterium, Hebræum, Græ- cum, Arabicum, et Chaldæum, cum tribus Latinis interpretationibus. Genuae, Petrus Paulus Porrus, 1516." Folio, half green morocco. This, the first Polyglot psalter, edited by Agostino Giustiniani, is impor- tant also, as containing the first printed biography of Columbus. It is printed as a long marginal note to Psalm xix."

"The fine collection of paintings, curios and bric-a-brac, belonging to Dr. Coles," says the New York Tribune, "which has been on exhibition in the art gallery of the

street, Newark, for the past two weeks, for the benefit of the Newsboys' Building Fund, is, without exception, one of the choicest collections in Newark, if not in New Jersey."

The art critic of The Queen, says of the oil painting (ten feet by five feet) entitled "The Fall of Man," by Bouverie Goddard, and exhibited by him at the Royal Acad- emy, London, England, in 1877,-"Second to no picture painted since Sir Edwin Landseer's palmy days, in which animal forms and character have been represented and expressed on canvas is Mr. Goddard's truly noble 'Fall of Man.' In the distance appears the vision of the celestial warrior- guardians of the gate of that blissful gar- den, no longer the home of the fallen ones, from which, for the first time conscious of the fierce instincts of their nature, various animals are rushing away in amazement and alarm."

"The picture portrays," says The Acad- emy, "the savagery of the brute nature en- suing upon the disobedience of Adam and Eve. * The difficulty of Mr. God- dard's attempt becomes all the greater, in that he does not represent any actual at- tack of one animal upon another, but only the moment when the attacking and raven- ous impulse arises and manifests itself in gesture and demeanor."

"We have not, for a long time, met with a picture of animals by an Englishman," says The Athenæum, "showing so much care, energy, and learning, as Mr. B. God- dard's 'The Fall of Man,' in which the life- size beasts, terrified by the portents attend- ing 'The Fall,' rush from the neighborhood of Eden, new ferocity being manifested by their actions and expressions."

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The London Times says,-"One is at first puzzled to account for the tremendous commotion among Mr. Bouverie God- dard's wild beasts, carried to its height in a powerfully designed and well painted fore- ground group of a lion, lioness, and cubs, till we learn, more from the title than from the extract of Mil- ton, appended to it, that, such was the effect produced among the beasts of the forest by the 'Fall of Man.' They

ity,' there is nothing in the way of animal painting here so remarkable for the way the painter has brought landscape and ani- mals into harmonious imaginative condi- tions as Mr. B. Goddard's 'Combat'-a couple of bulls in deadly encounter on the margin of a river, under a stormy sunset sky, watched by an excited and eager herd of cows. Full of action, original in group- ing, and forcible.in light and shade, this really is a powerful picture, an excellent il-

THE "HAMPTON COURT" LABYRINTH-EUTERPE.

are supposed to sympathize with the signs in the heavens, the eclipsed sun, the lower- ing sky, the muttering thunder, and sad drops 'wept at the completing of the mor- tal sin.' "

Of the second painting, named "The Combat," or "A Bull Fight in the Vale," (seven feet by four feet,) painted in 1870, and exhibited the same year in the Royal Academy, the London Times, of May 30, 1870, said,-"After Sir Edwin's animal pic- tures, and, perhaps, Mr. B. Riviere's 'Char-

lustration of the wealth of subject that lies yet undrawn upon in the wide range of ani- mal life."

A third painting (nine feet by five feet), by Goddard, "A sale of New Forest Ponies at Lyndhurst Fair, England," is regarded by critics as equal in many respects to the "Horse Fair," by Rosa Bonheur.

The collection includes, also, works by the following artists: G. P. A. Healy, "The Arch of Titus," Rome, 1871 (canvas forty-eight inches by seventy-three inches),

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in which the poet Longfellow and his let, Anton Mauve, Felix Ziem, R. Eiser- daughter are seen standing under the arch, mann, "The Trumpter of Sackingen" (six feet seven inches, by four feet six inches); others are attributed to Rembrandt, Peter Pourbus (1510-1583), David Teniers, Da- vid Teniers, the younger (1610-1690) (two); Dubois, Til Borg (1625-1678), Luca Giordano (1632-1701), "Europa" (six feet. by five feet), from Prince Borghese sale, Rome, a fair rival of the artist's painting in the Berlin Gallery; Jean Steen, Gerhard Douw, Hans Memling (1440-1495), the eminent decorator of missals and church books; Jacob Backer (1609-1651), pupil of Rembrandt, "The Antiquarian" (six feet by four feet six inches), remarkable for its. realism and as illustrative of the perma- nency of colors used by the old masters; Ostade, Minderhout Hobbima (born at Antwerp about 1611), a small landscape of much grace and beauty; Holbein (1498- 1543), portrait of his patron, Henry VIII, of England; Salvator Rosa; Ribera (1588- 1656), Gerard (1770-1837), David Cox (1783-1859), etc., etc. while the artist F. E. Church is seated sketching, with G. P. A. Healy and J. Mc- Entee looking over his shoulder; all excel- lent portraits; through the arch a magnifi- cent view is had of the Colosseum beyond. J. F. Cropsey (five), Corfe Castle, England (seven feet by five feet), "Lake Nemi and Village on the Appian Way, Italy" (six feet by four feet), also three other land- scapes. Albert Bierstadt (five), "Mount Hood, in Oregon, at Sunset" (six feet by four feet), in merit and beauty, thought to be equal to his "Rocky Mountains;" "Mount Hood, Oregon, with storm ap- proaching;" "Niagara Falls from Goat Island;" "Mount Blanc, from near Geneva, Switzerland;" "Dieppe, near the Club House, France." Daniel Huntington (three)-one a life-size portrait of Abraham Coles,-A. T. Bricher (two), J. F. Kensett (three), F. E. Church, J. E. Freeman, "Scene in the Pyrenees, Spain" (six feet by three feet); Jones, "Niagara;" Thomas Moran, Edward Moran (two), H. The marble statuary includes life-size busts of Abraham Coles, by J. Q. A. Ward; William Harvey, by Horatio Stone; Walter Scott, by Chantrey, a copy of the one at Abbotsford; Eve and Charity, by Hiram Powers; a full-length statue of the Hebrew prophetess, Deborah, by Lombardi; Mar- tin Luther; a large copy of the Warwick Vase, in Cararra marble; the Village Black- smith, full length figure, by Shakespeare Wood; the Venus of Melos, half of the size of the original in the Louvre, cast in bronze for Dr. Coles, at the foundry of Barbedi- enne; also bronzes by Barye, A. Gaudez, P. J. Mene, A. Mercie, Fournier, E. Pigault, G. Bareau, etc., etc. P. Smith, James M. Hart, Will- iam Hart, Julian Scott, Edward Gay, George Inness, W. S. Hazeltine, John Con- stable, R. A., Brunery; L. Verboeckhoven, A. Reinert, Paul Jean Clays, Jan Chilnisky, J. Carabain (two), H. De Buel, Rosa Bon- heur (pen and ink sketch), J. H. L. De Haas, Edward Portielge, B. C. Koekkoek; J. G. Brown, N. V. Diaz de la Pena, J. B. C. Corot, Constant Troyon; Theodore Rousseau (two), George Jeannin, Eugene Fichel, Georges Washington, Julian Du- pre, Jules Dupre (two), Charles Jacque, G. L. Pelouse, C. F. Daubigny, Karl Daubig- ny, H. Delacroix (two), F. De Vere, La- zerges, V. G. Stiepevich, Jean Francis Mil- Since the exhibition, which was a suc-

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cess, the committee having the matter in hand have secured a large comfortable home for the Newsboys and five hundred dollars from Dr. Coles toward paying for same.

August, 1897, Dr. Coles wrote :

Rev. John Williams, D. D., LL. D., Chancellor of Trinity College.

Dear Sir,-Belonging to the estate of my father, the late Abraham Coles, A. M., M. D., Ph D., LL. D., is a very beautiful life-size bust of Mozart, the first and only one in bronze cast from the original model. It was made for and imported by Messrs. Tiffany & Company, of New York city. To Trinity, as represent- ative of the Protestant Episcopal colleges in America, I, as executor of my father's estate, my sister, Emilie S. Coles, cordially concurring, will be pleased to give this bronze, with its imported marble pedestal, as a memorial of the affectionate regard that existed be- tween my father and yourself while you were presi- dent, professor and chancellor of Trinity, dean of Berkeley Divinity School. chairman of the house of Bishops and Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut, from which state came the founders of the city of Newark, in 1666.

The correspondence carried on between yourself and my father, relative to the latter's "unequaled transla- tions" of the "Dies Irae," has suggested the seemingly eminent propriety of giving to Trinity the bust of "that great composer by whose means this immortal poem has come to be worthily wedded to immortal music."

As a graduate of Columbia, I am personally gratified in knowing that my alma mater honored herself in honoring you, in 1851, with the degree of LL. D. Upon notification that the proffered gifts will be acceptable to the trustees of Trinity College, I will have the bust and its pedestal boxed by Messrs. Tiffany & Company. and sent as you may direct, by express, all charges prepaid. Awaiting your reply, I am, with great respect,

Yours Sincerely,

J. ACKERMAN COLES, Executor.

Replying to Dr. Coles, Ralph Birdsall, secretary to the Bishop, said :

"Bishop Williams thanks you very much for your kind proposition, and when the fall term begins at Trinity College he will send notification, that proper action may be taken in the premises."

Under a later date George Williamson Smith, D. D., LL. D., president of Trinity College, writes to Dr. Coles :

"A letter just received from Bishop Will- iams informs me of your kind offer to pre- sent to Trinity College 'a life-size bronze bust of Mozart' from the estate of your fa- ther, the late Dr. Abraham Coles. We

shall be very glad to have such a valuable addition to our rather meager collection of objects of art, and place it in Alumni Hall, where the portraits of benefactors and pres- idents are hung."

From Trinity College, Hartford, Con- necticut, October 2, 1897, President Smith wrote :

"The boxes containing the bronze bust of Mozart and its marble pedestal have been opened and the work is placed in Alumni Hall, where it attracts attention and awakens great admiration. I beg leave to thank you in the name of the college, and will report the gift to the trustees at their next meeting."

To Amherst College Dr. Coles has given, from his father's estate, an heroic-size bust of Virgil, the only known bronze copy of the original in the Museum of the Louvre. It was cast at the foundry of Barbedienne, Paris, purposely for Dr. Coles, by order of Tiffany & Co., and by them was appropri- ately mounted on an imported pedestal of dark Italian marble.

President Merrill E. Gates, Ph. D., L. H. D., LL. D., in his acknowledgment of the gift wrote: "The bust has great and exceptional value in itself, and coming from you, in memory of your father, his re- gard for Amherst and his relations with us in the past, it will have a double value."

Dr. Coles sent, also, recently, a valuable bronze and pedestal to the home of Wash- ington at Mount Vernon, the receipt of which gift has been courteously acknowl- edged.

The New York Observer says: "Dr. Coles has given princely gifts of art to pub- lic and educational institutions, but none more appropriate or better appreciated than his donation to the public, of a superb

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bronze bust of his distinguished father, the late Abraham Coles, physician, poet, au- thor and scientist, which, with its pedestal of historic and religious interest, was un- veiled in Newark, July 5, 1897."

The following "Tribute," by M. Win- chester Adams, is from the Newark Daily Advertiser :

With thankfulness for the sweet hymns To comfort "all the days," And admiration in our hearts, Upon his face we gaze. He is not dead-no one is dead- Whose voice speaks through all time In adoration, faith and love In ev'ry clime.

The little children whom he loved, Stop oft to read the song,

"The Rock of Ages," wondrous words, So true and grand and strong.

It gives the weary pilgrim strength, "God's mercy standeth fast," His promises "from age to age" For aye shall last.

"Ever with Thee," what perfect faith Abounds throughout the hymn; No more of sorrow, night or fear, Or tears the eye to dim.

'T will comfort many, long years hence,- Whose lives have shadows gray,-

And they will breathe a prayer of thanks, As I, to-day.

"As a gift for the new building, to be erected at the head of Washington Park, in Newark, N. J., for the Free Public Library, Dr. Coles," says The Republican (Spring- field, Massachusetts), "has ordered Messrs. Tiffany & Co., of New York city, to have cast in bronze at the foundry of Barbedi- enne, France, a life-size bronze bust of George Washington, from the original model by Jean Antoine Houdon, whose full length statue of Washington in marble, modeled from life at Mt. Vernon, by order of the State of Virginia, is, in the Capitol at Richmond.

"When the library building shall be ready for the reception of the bust cast es- pecially for it, Dr. Coles will give also a pedestal of marble and bronze, in harmony

with its subject, and in keeping with the architecture of the entrance hall, or other site decided upon as most proper for its lo- cation."

"On February 22, 1898," says the Mor- ris County Chronicle, "Washington's birth- day was celebrated at the headquarters of the Washington Association at Morris- town. Austin Scott, LL. D., president of Rutgers College, delivered an able address on Washington. Jonathan W. Roberts, president of the Washington Association, then briefly announced the receipt of a val- uable bronze from Dr. J. Ackerman Coles, of Newark, and called upon the donor for some remarks concerning the same. Dr. Coles said :

"As executor of the estate of my father, I would have been derelict in the discharge of my duty if, in the distribution of works of art to the various institutions of learning he loved, I had omitted to remember Washington's Headquarters, at Morris- town, N. J., a building that is said to have sheltered more statesmen, military and naval heroes connected with our War for Independence than any other house in America, the home where for many months Martha Washington, as hostess, hospitably entertained her husband's guests; where Alexander Hamilton, during the winter of 1779, met, laid siege to and won the heart of the daughter of General Schuyler; where, from time to time, gathered mem- bers of the Continental Congress, in front of which mansion Washington's body- guard of one hundred Virginians kept watch day and night.

"In every room and on every wall are objects of historic interest. Therefore, Mr. President, I esteem it a privilege and a pleasure to be permitted to add something

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thereto, and, as a member of the Washing- ton Association, in memory of my father, the late Dr. Abraham Coles, I now proffer for your acceptance the bronze medallion, bearing the stamp of Tiffany & Co., and en- titled "Triumviri Americani," representing in bas-relief life-size portraits of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ulys- ses S. Grant, and designated also, respec- tively, 'Pater, 1789-93,' 'Salvator, 1861-65,' 'Custos, 1869-73'-father, saviour and pre- server, of the republic."

Upon vote, the gift was unanimously ac- cepted, with many thanks.

For the officers and graduates of An- dover, Massachusetts, Dr. Abraham Coles entertained both high regard and affection, and he often referred to the zeal, earnest- ness and devotion of Judson, Newell, Nott, Hall, Mills, Richards, Rice and others, that finally resulted in the founding, January 28, 1810, of the American Board of Com- missioners for Foreign Missions. To the trustees of Andover Theological Seminary Dr. Coles has sent, as a gift from his fa- ther's estate, a life-size bust of Mendels- sohn, whose oratorios of "St. Paul" and "Elijah" have made their author's name im- mortal. The bust is the first made and probably only copy in bronze of the orig- inal in the Louvre. It was cast at the Barbedienne foundry, in Paris, especially for Dr. Coles, by order of Tiffany & Com- pany.

In 1878 Emilie S. Coles published the Mission Band Hymnal, consisting for the most part of hymns written by her father, at her request, to be sung to his favorite tunes. One of her own together with some of her father's composing were subse- quently incorporated in Hymns of the Ages, an excellent work compiled by the

Rev. Robert P. Kerr, D. D., of Richmond, Virginia, for the use of the churches, es- pecially those at the south. The preface to this work is written by the Rev. Moses D. Hoge, D. D., who was a beloved com- panion in foreign travel of the late Dr. Coles. Two of the hymns by Dr. Coles in this volume are "When Jesus speaks, so sweet the sound, the harps of heaven are hushed to hear" (Migdol, L. M., Arr., L. Mason), and the "Hymn of Dedication," beginning "We can not build alone" (Brooklyn, H. M .- J. Zundel). We give below the words of the familiar hymn known by the name "Adoration," com- posed and written by Miss Coles, to the tune "Berlin" (Mendelssohn's Songs With- out Words), but in "Hymns of the Ages," set to the tune of "Eventide," by W. H. Monk, and to Troyte's Chant No. I.

Now lift we Hymns of heart-felt praise to Thee, Our King, Redeemer, Saviour, Brother, Friend! And when Thy face we, in Thy likeness, see, Our adoration-song shall never end:

Then shall we sing-when with our God we reign, Serving Thee, ever, in most holy ways- "Worthy the Lamb who once for us was slain!" That Song, forever new, of ceaseless praise.

While here we tarry in this world of need, Seeking the lost ones who in darkness roam, Thy little flock, Good Shepherd, gently lead, And bear Thy lambs in safety to Thy Home.

FREDERICK WILLIAM RICORD.

Frederick William Ricord, son of Jean Baptiste Ricord and Elizabeth (Stryker) Ricord, was born in Guadeloupe, West In- (lies, October 7, 1819, and died in Newark, New Jersey, August 13, 1897.

Mr. Ricord represented several lines of descent, including the Holland Dutch of his maternal grandfather, whose family set- tled in New Amsterdam in 1652, where Jan Stryker, of Ruiven, the first bearer of the name to come to America, was a man

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of no little importance, and later was the founder of a Dutch colony on Long Island, the modern name of which is Flatbush. Jan Stryker was its first chief magistrate, which office he held for twenty years. This family was one both ancient and honorable in Holland. Of its pedigree fourteen de- scents are given in Holland up to 1791.

Of the French line of Mr. Ricord's line of ancestry, it may be said to include Hugue- not and Girondist blood, the French Revo- lution being chiefly responsible for its emi- gration to America, his grandfather Ricord having fled to this country in 1793 to es- cape, with his young wife and little chil- dren, the horrors of that terrible era.

Jean Baptiste. the father of the subject of this memoir, who always bore the family title of Madianna, which belonged to him as the eldest son of the family, studied med- icine, was graduated at the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons of New York, and practiced medicine in this country and at his home in the West Indies. He is well known as the author of several valuable scientific works.

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Biographical and genealogical history of the city of Newark and Essex County, New Jersey, V. 1, Part 8

Author: Ricord, Frederick W. (Frederick William), 1819-1897; Ricord, Sophia B Publication date: 1898 Publisher: New York : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 826

Author: Ricord, Frederick W. (Frederick William), 1819-1897; Ricord, Sophia B
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: New York : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 826